A refresher training session on Web of Science was conducted for The Maldives National University (MNU) staff and students on 28 October 2024, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The session was delivered in a hybrid format, enabling participants to attend both physically and online. The hybrid session provided more equitable access to research training and scholarly resources, including opportunities for staff and students who could not attend physically.

The training was conducted by Vishav Sharma, Senior Customer Success Manager at Clarivate, and was designed to strengthen participants’ ability to effectively use Web of Science for academic research, scholarly publishing, citation analysis, and researcher visibility.

The session provided practical guidance on advanced literature searching, citation tracking and cited-reference searching, identifying high-impact journals and emerging research trends, research performance and benchmarking, author profiling, and strategies for enhancing the visibility and impact of scholarly work.

Particular emphasis was placed on the benefits of creating and maintaining a Web of Science Researcher Profile. Participants were introduced to ways of strengthening their researcher identity by linking their ORCID iD with Web of Science and ensuring that their scholarly publications are correctly associated with their researcher profiles.

The session also highlighted the importance of researchers actively publishing and appropriately documenting their scholarly outputs. Maintaining accurate and connected researcher profiles can enhance the discoverability and visibility of research and support more effective tracking of scholarly contributions and citation impact.

Another important area discussed was the value of research networking and collaboration. Participants were encouraged to use research information and researcher networks to identify scholars working in similar fields, explore opportunities for collaboration, and strengthen professional research connections. Such networks can also assist researchers in identifying potential collaborative projects and research funding opportunities.

Through the session, participants enhanced their understanding of how Web of Science can be used not only as a literature discovery platform, but also as a tool to support the broader research lifecycle—from identifying relevant scholarly literature and analysing research trends to developing researcher profiles, building collaborations, and increasing the visibility and potential impact of research.

The training forms part of MNU Library’s continuing efforts to strengthen research capacity and promote effective use of subscribed scholarly resources among the University’s staff and students.